Volumes sold in fiscal years 2017 through 2020 under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 Section 404 are estimates based on projected prices of West Texas Intermediate crude oil in the February 2018 Short-Term Energy Outlook and Annual Energy Outlook 2018. Recent legislation has directed the sale of more than 100 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in U.S. government fiscal years (FY) 2022 through 2027. Based on legislated sales established in multiple acts of Congress, the SPR could decline by about 40% in the coming decade while still meeting requirements for petroleum import coverage. Assuming no other legislation over this period, the SPR could decline from 695 million barrels at the start of 2017 to about 410 million barrels at the start of 2028. The largest stockpile of government-owned emergency crude oil […]